The Open Alliance grew incredibly this year. With 30+ build threads, it can be hard to keep track of all of the great things the #openalliance teams are posting. Each Thursday, I’ll make a highlights post here so you can see the best content as voted by the community.
One of 6328’s key projects this offseason was to develop our own Java framework for data logging in robot code. We created AdvantageKit , a library that we plan to expand with a variety of useful tools for building robot code.
Lots of logging frameworks already exist in FRC, from built-in tools like the Driver Station and Network Tables to custom solutions for logging more detailed information. However, most systems exist around the same fundamental idea; record a limited set of values explicitl…
Worksheet .
The first goal of today’s meeting was to break the game down into all the specific capabi…
We had an interesting development during brainstorming yesterday that I’ve thought about over night.
The LigerBots begin build season with a 3 day design process. Our team splits into 9 groups of 8-10 students (we have a huge team this year). Each group designs a game strategy and robot. Subteams such as CAD, electrical, and programming, are distributed among the groups to diversify the ideas generated and take into account a variety of technical backgrounds.
After 3 day design, the team will regroup as a whole and choose a robot design to pursue through a “six hats’’ process which reviews eac…
WEDNESDAY - WEEK 1
We took a day or two to prepare our prototypes but we finally got around testing a bunch tonight to get a first feel for some different materials vs. CARGO on intakes and shooters.
Intake Prototype 1 - Carwash #frc95 style
Carwash style intake with non-slip drawer liner. These were mounted in a 3D printed adapter > 4 flaps.
Looks quite promising but we need to improve compression and maybe 2 flaps instead of 4.
https://youtu.be/I2aIXS897f0
Intake Prototype 2 - Mecanum…
20 Likes
The Open Alliance teams have been producing some amazing work over the first weeks of the season. Here are some of the highlights from week 2, showing off multiple prototypes, strategy analysis, and more.
WEEK 1 SUMMARY
Prototyping
We assembled our first prototype of a hooded flywheel shooter based on 4255’s design. We weren’t able to test it out much but from what we could tell we’ll need a fairly high angle to hit the “fender shot” into the Upper Hub.
[shooter prototype]
We’ve also done some preliminary testing of wheels and surfaces against the Cargo. Overall, these are a very forgiving game piece in terms of grip and compression. They slide easily against polycarbonate, and can be squish…
2022 Day 7 & 8: Intake Testing and a New Climber Concept
[image]
Video
We are using silicone bands in this video, soft silicone has worked well in our past intakes (2019) and it appears to grip the balls well this year.
QUICK RECAP
A quick update on our intake progression!
We’ll be posting our shooter videos tomorrow but those take a little longer to edit… At least I don’t want to get your bored watching a 2 minute video for 10 double shots.
I’ll be quick cutting those tomorrow including results.
We’ve been testing 5 different types of hood grip.
1 Neo vs 2 Neo
All UPPER shots
etc…
[Shooter Editting]
BOUNCING CARGO INTAKE PROTOTYPES
We’ve been working with the idea of adding a top roller above our …
detailed guide on part naming schemes on our CAD Training site, but here are a few examples:
21-000-000 21 – The first two digits represent the last two digits of the year in which the assembly was created.
000 – The next three dig…
Done! Kind of. I spent a few hours today running tests, and uploaded videos of a good chunk of them. To start off with, I took the pyramid out and just screwed a wheel to the bottom - tomorrow I’m going to mount it and power it, likely very similar to how it will be on the real field (based on AM’s model and gear ratio).
Primarily, we shot from two places today: the fender, and what we’re calling the third zone. Basically, we have the field broken up into four rings, going from closest to farth…
16 Likes
Thanks for putting all this together Allen! Open Alliance has been revolutionary for FIRST and my team has benefited significantly.
8 Likes
The Open Alliance teams have continued to publish excellent content through 3 weeks of the season. Below are some of the highlighted posts from our 37 member teams.
End of Week 2 Strategy, Design and Build Update
Strategy
Hi folks, I hope that you’ve been having a positive build season thus far. This past week has continued to evolve our team’s understanding of the game, how we think it is likely to be played, and what role we see ourselves having in that game.
Commonalities with games from the past are always fun to discover, and many others have pointed out that the end-game climb is similar to 2013, that the center-field goal looks a little like that …
Let’s talk about part finishing.
There are a lot of options for finishing your robot parts. Each has pros and cons of course. I’ll cover our own thought process in selecting our finishing option.
Bare
Fastest
Cheapest
Most durable
Easiest to blemish
Easiest to color-match
Lightest
Okay, okay, that one is a little tongue-in-cheek. But leaving some parts, or all parts, bare is a good option if you need to prioritize practice time, money, or something else. A pretty robot isn’t a requirement t…
We’ve been hard at work and have made a lot of progress in the past few days.
Our climber turned out pretty elegant this year. Building off 319’s experience with 3D printed bushings for their climber in 2020 , we decided to make a single stage telescope with printed bushings.
[image]
The top will be printed PLA, but but bushing on the bottom of the extending tube is where the clever stuff is.
[image]
We’re going to print this as one piece, and it has the profile of the timing belt printed right into it. We’ll then use a long strip of 5mm HTD belt (15mm wide). We’l…
WEEK 2
CAD Review
Last week I posted a deep dive into our CAD and design process, so here I go again with what’s changed throughout week 2.
Electronics
We decided to mount the battery vertically within the frame, rather than horizontally on top of the brainpan. This was to make it easier to hold in place during the match, as well as to shift weight downwards and towards the back. It also means changing up our electronics layout, which we’re still figuring out the best solution to. Right now …
2022 Day 15 and 16: Full Climb Video
[IMG_1432-X3]
After some more testing, we were able to get a successful climb sequence.
[[Screenshot 2022-01-24 224507…
Let’s talk about design calculations.
“Do the math” we’re told over and over. But what math should we do? How detailed should we make our calculations? What’s the tipping point between doing the math and empirical testing?
I’m not going to answer all of those questions, I don’t have all week to write this post! But you should think about them.
I’m a mechanical guy so I’m going to talk about mechanical calculations, but the same logic can be applied to any type of physics or system.
Have yo…
12 Likes
system
February 12, 2023, 6:53pm
7
This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.
